An Innocent Man

Currently, I am listening to the Billy Joel song An Innocent Man, on Spotify, while looking at the Wikipedia article about the John Grisham book ("his first outside of the legal fiction genre") entitled, "The Innocent Man: Murder and Injustice in a Small Town".

I don't know how applicable Billy Joel's protestations of  innocence were, but I know that the Grisham book was about a man named Ronald Keith Williamson who served time on death row, for the murder of Debra Sue Carter, before DNA evidence cleared his name. I read that book, and as I recall, Williamson spent a little bit of time in the United States Medical Center for Federal Prisoners (in my hometown of Springfield, Missouri), even though he was no longer on death row in Oklahoma. The trauma he suffered as a result of his wrongful conviction was severe, and he paid for that experience for the rest of his life. It took a fair amount of work on the part of The Innocence Project to clear his name, but thankfully, our courts are structured in such a way that there are provisions for the fallibility of the system.

Why do I now find myself thinking about such things? Have I been accused of committing a horrendous crime? Well, no, not at least in terms of accusations from law enforcement officers and prosecuting attorneys. But the bar is considerably lower for pastors, who seem to think that the mere fact that they "speak for God" entitles them to impugn the integrity of fellow Christian believers, without a shred of evidence to support their insulting accusations. Matt Atkins, the pastor of the Mosaic church in Bellingham, Washington, recently sent me an e-mail message, in which he said that he thought that I was guilty of seeking "nonconsensual" relationships with adult women, and of seeking loving and sexual relationships with "minors". That was an idiotic accusation. Matt clearly needs to brush up on the law. According to the Wikipedia article, "minor" is a legal term. "The age depends upon jurisdiction and application, but is generally 18." In the context of laws pertaining to consumption of alcohol, the term is a bit broader. People younger than 21 are considered to be minors in that context. But drinking coffee at Starbucks is legal for a person of any age.

At a service Mosaic called "Listening Sunday" (when we were encouraged to listen for the voice of God, during a visit to a park at Lake Whatcom), I approached a somewhat attractive young woman and passed her a note, expressing my desire in exploring the possibility that she and I might be compatible, and asking her to call or e-mail me if she would be interested in meeting with me for a cup of coffee. For that, I was repaid by Matt Atkins' insulting accusations. I later learned, from a pastor named Mitch Senti, that she had been 19 years old at the time. As I told him, I had no idea what her age was, since people do not typically walk around wearing big signs around their necks telling people how old they are. If I'd known that she was that young, I probably would not have handed that note to her. But 19 years of age STILL IS NOT A MINOR.

In 1974, I sat in front of the draft board in Springfield, Missouri, and explained my reasons for considering myself to be a conscientious objector. I had to do so, because I was eligible to be drafted and sent to Viet Nam. Apparently, the U.S. government thought that an 18-yearr-old young MAN was old enough to make such decisions, and to kill and die on behalf of his country, unless he could come up with a darn good reason why he should be made exempt.

So let me get this straight: I was old enough, at age 18, to do those things. But a woman 1 year older is not old enough to say "no" when she is handed a note asking her out for a cup of coffee. GIVE ME A FREAKING BREAK!!!!!

And as for the "nonconsensual" accusation, I have never even kissed a woman or girl without first asking her if it was OK for me to do so. (One girl, named Cathy Boysen, said no. I didn't like it that she did, but I am a gentleman, and I know how to take no for an answer.) If Matt Atkins thinks that I am some kind of a rapist, he knows where I live, since he was there when Mosaic helped me to move from Apartment 107 to Apartment 118 in the same apartment complex. Matt has as much access to the Bellingham Police as any other citizen of this city. But I have not noticed that any of them have shown up with warrants for my arrest, even though I sent an e-mail to Allan Jensen (a detective) with the accusatory paragraph contained in Matt's e-mail.

The Ninth of the Ten Commandments is "Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor."  You know something? If a man is not willing to at least obey that commandment, he isn't qualified to be chief bottle washer, much less the pastor of a church.